Yesterday morning and during the whole drive to Busch Gardens, Amira, my little one, said she wanted to see the zebras. She told me this at least twenty times before we arrived. While at Busch Gardens, Amira and I rode the Serengeti Express train. The train took us through the Serengeti Plain. The Serengeti Plain is where we get to witness giraffes, zebras, and various types of antelope, as well as rhinos and other such African animals roaming and being in the element.

The train was approaching the zebras, so I told Amira, “Look, over there, the zebras are standing together.”

She continued to look in the opposite direction. I told her again to look in the direction of the zebra. I didn’t want her to miss what she was so excited to see. I didn’t want her to miss what she was looking for. So, the mom in me place my hands like side blinder on her face, turned her body in the direction of the zebras and said, “Look! There they are! There are the zebras!”

Amira turned to me and said, “Don’t do that. I don’t like that!”

As we rode past the zebras, she turned to me and asked, “Where are the zebras?”

I said, “Well, honey, the zebras were back there. You missed them.”

As the tragedy of the missing zebras ended, a thought crossed my mind: Why don’t we see what we are looking for?

How often are you so excited to experience something that you forget to pay attention to what is going on right in front of you? We think the experience we desire has to be difficult and complicated. In fact, what we wanted was always right in front of us; we just had to look in the opposite direction.

Maybe, someone is right beside you now, helping you to see what you are missing. Maybe instead of going against them, maybe step back, look, and simply listen. Maybe they are there for a reason. Maybe what you want is right in front of you. Why aren’t you seeing what you are looking for?